Flashback — The Virtual Boy, An Example in Failure
December 11, 2009 by Shawn Deena
Filed under Video Game Marketing
you don't just play the game you're in the game
No not the GameBoy — the Virtual Boy. See this wasn’t a handheld gaming device. This was the first”portable” gaming console. Not straying too far from convention Nintendo figured it was just easy to have the whole “boy” thing again so there you go. In 1995 when the company released the Virtual Boy they thought — “Hey this is a good idea. A portable console.” — Famous last words.
It wasn’t so much that the Virtual Boy was a dreadful hunk of plastic with less than mediocre games and a frustratingly awkward controller. Well actually it was that plus, that was the same year we saw the Sea Saturn and despite the console not lasting, during it’s short life it produced a hefty chunk of quality games. The Virtual Boy on the other, it just didn’t really go over so well.
There’s no question they were aiming high here — a 3D gaming console? Check part of the ad campaign
“3d Gaming for a 3D world.”
Did you see the mad visuals for Mario? Putting things into perspective it’s conceivable (slightly) that 15 plus years ago it would have been sort of exciting to have a 3d game even if it looked like the early test shots for Tron (if you don’t get the reference look it up).
Coming in at at a price point of $180 this was a pricey pair of gaming goggles and a controller. Nintendo made various attempts at price but the problem wasn’t the price. It was the fact that you had to strap a View Master to your head while operating an M shaped controller playing what looked like some weird line graphic craptacular tennis game. It just didn’t play when you had the Sega Saturn and it’s pretty graphics and colors to compete. There was just no contest.
So poorly received was the Virtual Boy that it only lasted a year before it was discontinued. Having only made 22 games for the device Nintendo essentially had the right idea with this forward thinking console but it was such a clunker in it’s design that the gaming public of the 20th century just didn’t buy into it. Year’s later it would acquire the title of one of the ugliest products in tech history.
The only saving grace this disaster of design retains is that in some palces it’s considered a hot collector’s item.
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